Kong: Skull Island Review – All hail the King of Apes!

When Godzilla was rebooted in 2014 as an ancient force of nature, it was a well-written film as to the very existence of Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism (MUTO) and how they still exist to maintain nature’s balance. The movie did extremely well to intertwine the human element to the grander action and it worked perfectly.

So, the excitement was natural when King Kong was also going to be rebooted in a similar fashion and it got better with the announcement of a shared MonsterVerse. Kong directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts maintains the good parts of Godzilla i.e. powerful showcasing of the monster, as much logical explanations as one can expect and the human element constantly being a strong driving factor in the film.

The movie occurs in 1973 when the existence of an unknown island comes to the fore and a team is assembled to study the island. Mayhem breaks loose and the story takes a familiar route from then of a misunderstood monster finally saving the day. Samuel.L.Jackson as Colonel Packard provides a neat wrinkle to the plot and leads to some tense moments towards the end. Tom Hiddleston’s presence is a definite lift while soon-to-be Captain Marvel Brie Larson does her best with the limited character material. John C. Reilly plays Hank Marlow, who has been stuck on the island for a long while and friends with the Iwi natives.

The first huge plus point of the film is cinematography by Larry Fong, who has previously worked for Zack Snyder films, including Batman vs Superman:Dawn of Justice. Fong captures the landscape of the island, filled with rivers, mountains and flora with an extra layer of beauty and the gigantic magnificence with which Kong is presented in every frame stands out.

The movie starts at a brisk pace building the story and then the entire story revolves in Skull Island. Kong is given more screen-time than Godzilla was, but that could be very well due to the availability of a better characterization and greater depth for an ape when compared to the God of Monsters. However, the screenplay loosens a bit towards the middle as the back-story is explained and the movie inches towards the climax and here, John C.Reilly’s humour is the only positive that keeps the viewers engaged.

Coming to the King of Apes himself, I have not watched the 30s film and my only reference here is the one from Peter Jackson’s King Kong. I personally prefer the current version of the Kong, young, strong, temperamental but with a heart. Every scene Kong is in, he burns the screen, be it the action sequences including a very cool Roman Reigns’ Superman Punch, or the scenes we see him show his benevolent side or the scenes he interacts with the humans.

With Kong, the two main protagonists in the MonsterVerse have made their way onto the silver screens and now the wait begins for the Godzilla vs Kong movie in 2020. While it does look for a Superman vs Batman clash, what sells it as well as differentiates it from the superhero genre is that the existence of these monsters lies on borderline reality, but believable one nonetheless. This is because we still do not completely understand every mystery of our planet and given that giant creatures roamed our lands before we arrived, the notion of a predator rising up when a prey turns up as a balance of nature is not all that implausible.

Before the clash of titans, Godzilla: God of Monsters is going to hit the theatres in 2019 and that would be a good measure of whether the standalone movies can continue after the traits and powers of the monsters are revealed in their respective first parts and the novelty element is no longer present. Till, then everyone can bow down to the King of Apes and my one piece of advice would be – please watch it in theatres for the monstrous experience as it is completely worth it, including the 3D.